Applications of Blockchain Technology

The world is abuzz with a groundbreaking new technology called Blockchain. The distributed ledger technology (DLT) has caused a great deal of disruption to the Information Technology space in ways that we have not seen since the advent of the internet. Blockchain, the underlying technology of Bitcoin, will make organisations more decentralised, safe, open, effective and democratic among other things. One of the more obvious use cases of blockchain technology is in the sector of financial services but it also has utility in various other industries.

Given the transparent, distributed, decentralized and immutable elements of Blockchain, forward-thinking enterprises including Fortune 500 companies are exploring new ways to use this distributed ledger technology. We have listed below some extremely interesting Blockchain use cases spanning across multiple industries. Have a look:

As a result of blockchain’s open, decentralised, immutable nature, enterprises that are usually one step ahead of the crowd (this includes many of the Fortune 500 companies) are finding fresh ways to utilise this distributed ledger technology. We are going to explore some rather thought provoking utilities of blockchain that spans across many different sectors.

Peer-to-peer Lending and Payments:

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending utilising digital assets and smart contracts in a network governed by blockchain is causing a great deal of disruption to the status quo of this type of lending. It eliminates the requirement for middle men to facilitate effective settlement and management of transactions. In addition, it helps in superior management of KYC records, User Verification and Collateral Management wherever applicable.

Supply Chain Communication:

Generally, things that we purchase are made up of more than one thing or entity. Most organisations work in a multi-partner supply environment by virtue of which many suppliers sell their parts to companies who further put together, market and sell the final product. The challenge with this traditional system is that it is often exposes to theft, fraud and heightened regulatory pressure. These challenges can be overcome by integrating blockchain into the supply chain to get immutable, permanent and auditable records that show the entities involved the status of the product at each step.

Electronic Voting:

The traditional electronic voting systems are centralised by design. This means that the entire codebase as well as database is in the control of a lone entity. A centralised system does not give us a transparent and automatically verifiable result and it fails to acquire the reliability that election organisers and voters long for. Blockchain can fix this. If we upload voting records onto a blockchain, the accuracy and trustworthiness of the electronic voting system can be authenticated and ensured.

Public sector organisations deal with ineffective operations and processes. They also deal with heightened security concerns related to their constantly growing pile of confidential information. Blockchain can be utilised by government organisations to improve the efficiency of operations whilst creating trust through openness and prevention of fraudulent activities.

Digital Identification:

Blockchain can be utilised to store any form of data and business transactions in a safe way as a result of its distributed nature. By creating an identity on blockchain, people can exert greater influence on those who have access to their personal information. Additionally, a digital identity can be created by utilising the decentralised nature of blockchain and subsequently assigned to each online transaction.

Proof of Authorship and Ownership:

At every instance, millions of users are generating significant amounts of data on the internet. This data is utilised by internet giants like Facebook and Google to monetise their services. The challenge is that users have negligible ownership over the digital data generated by them or the value that can be obtained from it. These internet giants claim to secure the integrity of their user data but it is unclear if they have a legitimate back up to keep this data safe in the event of a server failure or any similar situation. Owing to its decentralised nature, blockchain data is stored across several nodes, so no one node could take full control of their data. As a result, users can access the data that they have stored on the blockchain with the help of encryption keys, irrespective of the facility that created it.

Online Gaming:

An intriguing application of blockchain is seen in online gaming. Digital asset casinos are utilising blockchain in two different ways.

A) by making or accepting payments with Bitcoin or any other digital currency

B) by providing a fair gaming experience by utilising open source functions, needed to operate fair algorithms like hashing, random seen and number generation.

Users can, therefore, enjoy a fair, smooth and trustworthy online gaming experience with the help of blockchain.Blockchain has tons of use cases that can greatly impact the current systems of transacting for the better. Look out for the next part of our blog to get an understanding of various other applications of blockchain technology.